College Football - Live Thread - Week Four

ESPN.com Scoreboard ^ | Thursday September 21st to Saturday September 23rd 2006

[MikefromOhio]

Week Four – College Football

Week Three was dubbed “Separation Saturday” by all of the big media outlets, but, sadly, only really three of the games lived up to the billing. Oklahoma-Oregon, Tennessee-Florida and especially LSU Auburn were the exceptions to this. As has been the norm for the past few years, a few of these games were not without their controversy and blown calls. Thankfully another week of college football is upon us. The Big Ten, Big East and Big XII conference schedules begins this week, while some of the SEC heavyweights take a week from conference competition.

As always, all rankings are from the ESPN.com Scoreboard page. The betting lines (used sorely for the basis of predictions) are from Yahoo.com. I will list any games of interest (FReepmail me if you want your team included and I will include them from here on out) and any other games listed in my Yahoo league. I have a new feature this week. In each game that I do not have any confidence, or any game that I think a team could have an unexpected struggle, I will post a picture of a landmine for illustration.

GAME of the WEEK

Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 – 3:30 PM on FSN (Subject to change)

(20) Arizona St. at (22) Cal (-7.5)

This happens to be a make or break game for Cal. For a team that was a sleeper pick to be in the national title game, having 2 losses coming out of September would be a major disappointment. Now for Arizona St, this is a yardstick game. They will be able to see where they stand with one of the supposed elites of the Pac-10. Look for Cal to try to stop the passing attack of ASU and look for ASU to try to hit Cal as much as possible, which is exactly what Tennessee did. The betting line just doesn’t look quite right to me. It will be closer than a TD.

Cal 33 – ASU 30

Thursday September 21st, 2006 (ESPN Thursday Night Game)

Virginia at Georgia Tech (-17)

Virginia is a major disappointment this year. Georgia Tech had a shot to beat Notre Dame and be easily in the top 15 had they done so (given that they would be 3-0 at this point).

Georgia Tech 35 – Virginia 10


Saturday September 23rd 2006 (in ranking order)

(24) Penn State at (1) Ohio State (-16.5)

Ohio State 27 – Penn State 7

Buffalo at (2) Auburn (-42)

Auburn 58 – Buffalo 3

(3) USC (-21.5) at Arizona

USC 44 – Arizona 13

(4) West Virginia (-21) at East Carolina

West Virginia 47 – ECU 16

Kentucky at (5) Florida (-24)

Florida 34 – Kentucky 7

Wisconsin at (6) Michigan (-14)

Michigan 23 – Wisconsin 13

Iowa St at (7) Texas (-24.5)

Texas 43 – Iowa St. 10

(8) Louisville (-14) at Kansas State

Louisville 38 – K-State 10

Colorado at (9) UGA (-27)

UGA 28 – Colorado 7

Tulane at (10) LSU (-36)

LSU 45 – Tulane 6

Cincinnati at (11) Virginia Tech (-26.5)

VT 38 – Cincy 8

(12) Notre Dame (-3.5) at Michigan St

Michigan St. 34 – Notre Dame 27

(14) Iowa (-21) at Illinois

Iowa 34 – Illinois 3

Marshall at (15) Tennessee (-22)

Tennessee 42 – Marshall 9

Middle Tennessee St. at (17) Oklahoma (-28.5)

Oklahoma 48 – Middle Tenn. St. 14

Rice at (18) Florida State (-30.5)

FSU 41 – Rice 7

North Carolina at (19) Clemson (-16.5)

Clemson 24 – North Carolina 7

(20) Boston College (-7) at NC State

BC 26 – NC State 6

Troy at (23) Nebraska (-23.5)

Nebraska 28 – Troy 7

Hawaii at (25) Boise State (-14.5)

Boise St. 52 – Hawaii 27

52-8 Straight UP
40-19-1 Against the Spread

[maineman]

[maineman]

MATT RYAN

[MikefromOhio]

Buffalo sucks.....they really suck....

You could play your 3rd string the entire game and score 40

[Wyatt's Torch]

Perhaps. We are supposed to rest a mess of people with the short week next week. Hopefully we leave Cox in long enough to work on timing with the young wide receivers. As ,ong as nobody gets hurt it will be a successful game.

[MikefromOhio]

yeah....

But I think your defense has a good chance to score multiple times....

Buffalo isn't as bad as they used to be, but that just means they won't lose by 70

The only important thing to me is that hopefully they'll cover.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Who is "they" in your scenarion?

[MikefromOhio]

Auburn of course....

That's who I figured we were talking about...

[Wyatt's Torch]

Okay. You were talking about Buffalo in that post so that's who I thought "they" were. I picked Buffalo to cover....;-)

[MikefromOhio]

ah....

well I'd be very surprised if Buffalo can score before the 4th quarter.

Auburn's defense dominant and Buffalo's offense is anything but....

And I think Auburn's offense won't miss much of a beat with the backup RB in instead of Irons.

Although this probably effectively ends any chance Irons had at the Heisman because the stats matter.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Honestly, if Irons had seriously been in the Heisman running later in the year we would have lost a couple of games. That's not the way our offense is built to operate. Borges seeks mismatches and plays to those. Miss State put 8 in the box and sold out the run so we just threw it all over the place and won 34-0.

As for the backup to Irons, Brad LEster, many people don't know that Lester was the starter over Irons going into the Arkansas game last year. Lester had a sever groin injury which basically killed his season. Lester has a propensity for scoring touchdowns and is lightning quick. He just doesn't run over people like Kenny does. We'll also likely see Ben Tate who is a true freshman but graduated early so he could go through spring practice.

[MikefromOhio]

you'll probably see a running back by committee...


it's obvious to me that you know the Auburn depth chart much better than I do :)

[Nasher]

My only concern on this game (for OSU to cover) is the weather. Looks like heavy rain in the morning and then again in the early evening. Hopefully the game falls right in the middle of the two weather fronts. If it stays relatively dry I see another big day from these two guys:

My landmine game of the week: ND at MSU. I think the ND putdown about the MSU coaching staff is going to come back and bite them in the rear. MSU 37, ND 28.

Also - Mike could you add me to the ping list. Thanks.

[MikefromOhio]

That's where the Cincy game was so crucial.

OSU can run the ball on Penn State, especially later on in the game. Penn State doesn't have near the depth they had last year.

As for MSU, that was a landmine game for me too...

I'll have you added here in a second...

[Lakeshark]

Yawn.

OSU V Penn State. Might be closer than you think if your defense can't learn to tackle. Which would spell big trouble in Buckeye La la land.

The game to watch is Wisconsin.

[MikefromOhio]

the Wisconsin game will either be very close because Michigan will return to it's former inconsistent self OR it will be a massacre because Wisconsin does NOT have the offense to stick with the Wolverines.

OHio State tackles just fine.

[Nasher]

You're right on about the tackling. I don't know how many times we had the runners for a loss only to have bad tackling lead to a positive gain.

That said, at this point it doesn't really concern me that much. One thing is that it's early in the season with a young defense that will only continue to improve during the year.

Another thing is that the defenders are displaying great speed and athletism by consistently meeting the offensive player early in the play. Credit goes to the solid play of the d-line which helps free up the LBs and DBs.

Once the tackling catches up, the defense will be alright.

[scott says]

College Football Ping

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Early Games

[aft_lizard]

My eyes are bleeding watching the K-State v Loiusville game, too much purple.

[MikefromOhio]

College Football Ping.

Freepmail me to be added to this list.


Just one ping before I leave. Scott has the list for today. I will be stuck (hehe) at a wedding all day long. If you have any requests, please ping him. BTW thanks Scott.....

Oh yeah hey MICHIGAN, you might want to wake up and realize that Wisconsin isn't going anywhere.

You all have a good day and GO BUCKEYES!!

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Does this mean scott says is our babysitter?